The Belgian Gaming Commission has Teeth

According to new regulations from the Belgian Gaming Commission, at the beginning of next year (2012) the major internet service providers in Belgium will be given a list of online gambling websites that they will be required to block. The Gaming Commission provided a two-part list on behalf of the companies. The “white list” consists of the licensed online casinos that the ISP’s are authorized to allow access to as usual. The “black list” contains all the unlicensed casinos that they will be henceforth obligated to block.

The usage statistics for Belgian gamblers paint a pretty clear picture showing why the BGC felt the need to go this road. There are just shy of 200,000 online gamblers in Belgium. Among all those gamblers, only about 19% actually use the licensed sites. The vast majority of Belgian gamers use the unlicensed sites. In light of the unflattering statistics, the Belgian Gaming Commissions has signed agreements to work together with Belgian financial institutions as well to help solve the problem of unlicensed gambling.

Regulatory unit head Peter Naessens explained that a report was prepared by the Belgian police department providing the BGC with a list of all the sites that are operating without license. The regulatory unit will then deal with those sites that are used most (illegally) by Belgian citizens.

Even after the passing of the Belgian Gaming Act, online gambling remains illegal for the most part. However, through selective licensing, there exists a framework for operating an online casino legally. The Gaming Commission is in charge of licensing, regulation, inspection, and supervising.